14 Communicators Attend EJN’s Renewable Energy Workshop in Varanasi

India’s decarbonization hinges on its commitment to replace fossil fuel-based energy with renewable energy. With only five years until 2030, India needs to up its game to achieve sources. States like Rajasthan and Gujarat have made huge leaps in generating more renewable energy, while Uttar Pradesh (UP), despite having the second highest electricity demand among all states of India as of June 2024, ranks ninth in terms of installed solar power capacity. 

Still, the UP state government banks on its solar potential, setting up large solar projects in the rural districts of Bundelkhand, while cities like Lucknow, Varanasi and Ayodhya are seen as prime spots for rooftop solar installations. 

To support communicators to understand UP’s current renewable energy landscape, while also discussing the potential of upcoming projects across the state, Internews’ Earth Journalism Network organized a three-day workshop in Varanasi, India, from September 26-28. These 14 communicators were selected to attend:

• Sunil Sharma, Dainik Bhaskar 
• Arvind Shukla, News Potli
• Srishti Choudhary, CNN-NEWS18 (Network18)
• Shailesh Shrivastava, Mongabay India
• Chandrani Sinha, independent journalist
• Shailvee Sharda, The Times of India 
• Anand Tripathi, Navbharat Times
• Neetu Singh, Shades of Rural India 
• Ramji Mishra, independent journalist
• Ajay Prakash Mishra, Janjwar Media
• Bhumika Saraswati, independent journalist 
• Rishi Mishra, ETV Bharat
• Brijendra Dubey, independent journalist
• Mohsina Malik, independent journalist

The workshop began with EJN India Manager, Joydeep Gupta, setting the context. He brought the participants’ attention to the high energy consumption levels in UP, which have surpassed the country’s average, and noted how RE can be a key player in filling the gap between demand and supply. 

Shivani Seth and Purnabha Dasgupta from the Just Transitions Research Centre, IIT Kanpur spoke about the urgent need for the media to take science from academia to the people, through narratives that inform the public efficiently. In the areas of just transition this is especially important as the communities previously dependent on the fossil fuel industry are socially and economically vulnerable and risk becoming more so with the energy transition.

Glad to have presented @Jtrc_iitkanpur's work with @purnabha1986 on #justtransition in Indian #coal regions.

Thank you @earthjournalism, @joydeepgupta and all the journalists for engaging with us in the discussion! https://t.co/2MoS5bxwLF

— Shivangi Seth (@ShivangiSeth15) September 29, 2024

Mewa Lal, a veteran in waste-to-energy in Uttar Pradesh, stressed how the sector is flailing across the world. He pointed out that without strong government support it was difficult for this sector to take off, despite the growing amount of waste worldwide. 

To provide an institutional perspective on RE in Uttar Pradesh, EJN invited Ashish Tiwari, Secretary of the Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of Uttar Pradesh to speak to the participants. Joining virtually, he emphasized how the UP government envisioned developing an integrated strategy to meet its renewable energy targets, including novel efforts in the areas of bio-CNG or compressed natural gas made from biodegradable municipal waste, energy from agricultural residue, huge solar projects in relatively remote regions currently facing electricity shortage, and the much touted solar-rooftop plan. He also shared with the participants a database developed by the government, where they could track the current progress of the state in renewable energy and other climate change targets.

Later, Sudhir Mishra, editor of Navbharat Times, and Shubranshu Choudhury, founder of CGNet Swara, spoke about how stories on energy need to be made accessible to people, with the language and content tailored to the interests of the audience. Choudhury went one step further, asking if the media can be truly democratic, so that it could represent audiences in the remotest regions. This, he guessed, might change the kind of energy stories currently reported.

Preetam Singh, Associate Professor in the Department of Ceramic Engineering at IIT-BHU, the Indian Institute of Technology Varanasi, , walked the participants through why he thinks green hydrogen is a fuel of the future, and how current research in the area is proving how various sources beyond water, including biomass in the form of agricultural waste or forest residue, can be used to produce hydrogen. This prepared the participants for the field visit to a green hydrogen pilot project, anchored by Singh, the next day. The plant, located in the nearby Mirzapur district, works on a “thermally accelerated anaerobic digestion (TAD) reactor” which produces hydrogen, methane and biochar from biomass. The participants witnessed the process of converting wood shavings into hydrogen and saw firsthand how the biproducts were used.

The participants also learned about the significant challenges of scaling green hydrogen production, including its relatively high production cost compared to traditional hydrogen (which is made using either black or brown coal through an emission-intensive method), the need for infrastructure to store and transport it, and the lack of established market mechanisms to incentivize widespread adoption.

On the last day of the training workshop, participants deliberated on how the story of green hydrogen, a seemingly complex topic, could be told in an audience-friendly manner. One suggested exploring how India’s growing problem of agricultural residue and pollution due to residue burning might be tackled if a supply chain could be linked to hydrogen production. Another proposed a story examining whether forest fires in the Himalayan region, sparked often by the dry biomass that collects on the forest floor, could be reduced if there were strategies to collect the biomass and channel it to hydrogen plants. Participants also developed ideas for audiovisual stories, based on an introductory training on mobile journalism led by Manon Verchot and Sanshey Biswas of InOldNews. 

“The sessions with local experts and a senior government representative were insightful, as well as the field visits which assisted in providing a clear picture of the issue. I would also like to thank EJN for including multimedia training for shooting and editing videos which is tremendously helpful for journalists in today's fast-changing digital world,” said one of the participants, who chose to remain anonymous. 

• Check out this multimedia story produced by Rishi Mishra, workshop participant and journalist at ETV Bharat.

“It was interesting to see a clean way to produce hydrogen apart from breaking up a water molecule,” said EJN’s Gupta. “This has high potential as hydrogen is being championed as the transport fuel of the future, replacing petrol and diesel. I am glad that journalists attending the workshop had a chance to see this plant at a pilot stage.”

Banner Image: Group photo at the green hydrogen plant / Credit: Manasi Pinto.